i have a chip adaptor in my sd-1 and just for kicks, i put in a M5218 chip i removed from my ibanez pt-3 pedalboard. i really can't put a finger to it, but the sd-1 sounds really nice with it. it seems more lively, the drive more full. i'll try to borrow a stock sd-1 and do a side by side comparison this week.
here's what i found out in the comparison. btw, i used a tele with a neck humbucker and a strat-style with bridge humbuckers into a solid state marshall 15 watts. i put the 2 sd-1s side by side and also individually since the sd-1 is known for signal bleed altho i really coudnt tell. i had the pedals setting starting at 12o'clock then varied the amounts of gain. as far as i can hear, the m5218 had a lot less drive than my friends stock sd-1 with jrc4558DD. its max gain as reached with the drive knob at 10:00. the stock pedal had a little less drive at 10:00 but if you turned the pedal, there was still increasing amounts of drive available. the same results also when i compared it to a jrc4558D in an od-1 since my friends sd-1 didnt have a chip adapter, so i used my od-1 with a chip adapter. all in all i still liked the sound of the m5218 but its lack of more drive availble made me stick with the 4558.
M5218 chip in sd-1
Posted - 04/28/2009 : 12:16:10
